Posted on 12/27/2021 5:38:22 AM PST by DoodleBob
Amid the sharp increase of COVID-19 cases, the Times Square New Year's Eve celebration will be scaled back, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced on Thursday. While the public can still attend, the capacity will be lowered and both vaccination and masking will be required.
Under the new plan, all attendees over 5 years of age will need to provide proof of full vaccination (which was received by December 17th) along with a valid photo ID, and will need to be masked while in the outdoors pens. Spectators won't be allowed to enter until 3 p.m. on December 31st, which is much later than previous years when people would start entering Times Square early in the morning to stake out spots. Further, the crowd will be limited to 15,000 people—usually there are closer to 60,000—to allow for social distancing.
"New Yorkers have stepped up tremendously over the past year—we are leading the way on vaccinations, we have reopened safely, and every day we work toward building a recovery for all of us," de Blasio said in a statement. "There is a lot to celebrate and these additional safety measures will keep the fully vaccinated crowd safe and healthy as we ring in the New Year.”
Last year's New Year's Eve celebration was closed to the public; instead, there were musical performances, with a small group of essential workers invited to watch while in socially-distanced pens.
In November, when De Blasio and the Times Square Alliance said festivities would return to Times Square this year, the plan was to allow unvaccinated attendees if they wore masks. However, the new omicron variant's transmissibility has sent COVID case counts rising exponentially, demanding a change in protocol.
Mayor-elect Eric Adams, who canceled his indoor January 1st inauguration, voiced his support of the adjustment: "New York is the best place in the world to celebrate New Year’s Eve and now it will be one of the safest against COVID as well. The Mayor has made the right move to take precautionary measures as we learn to live with COVID and fight the Omicron variant—and New Yorkers and visitors alike can now enjoy Times Square and the rest of our city as we ring in 2022."
De Blasio had expressed reluctance to completely cancel the event, saying on Tuesday, "The goal, of course, is to keep it going, because it's such an important event for New Yorkers and for the whole world."
Times Square Alliance president Tom Harris said, "We applaud the leadership of Mayor de Blasio in finding a way to welcome revelers into Times Square on New Year's Eve in an even safer way than we originally planned. This year revelers will be fully vaccinated, masked, and we will have reduced occupancy in the viewing areas. We understand that everyone will not be able to be here but welcome them to experience New Year's Eve in Times Square from our live webcast, on one of the networks or on the VNYE app.”
The event will be streaming on a number of sites, including TimesSquareNYC.org, NewYearsEve.nyc, LiveStream.com/2022 and TimesSquareBall.net.
My daughter from Uptown will probably stay over, because it’s safer out here in the ‘burbs, and she’ll stay up until her brother gets home from work at Walmart at 11:30. Excitement!
Sometimes I’m very involved in a book and don’t realize how late it is.
ROTFLMAO! I am laughing, not because people who go there might have to wear adult diapers (that sounds like an eminently sensible thing, even if actually going there isn't) but because the Leftists who love and promote this kind of thing either don't think it is important to put out enough port-o-potties to handle the crowd, or think something in human nature is malleable enough to make people not have the desire to drink and pee.
I feel pretty certain that at New Years Eve in Times Square, they take all necessary steps to remove dumpsters behind which people would, in the past, pee in desperation!
I went to the 4th Of July celebration at the Boston Hatch Shell some years back, and although they did set up a lot of port-o-potties, it still wasn't enough. I went to one long row, and there were long, long, lines of squirming women waiting to get into them. I wondered for a second why it was primarily women, until I saw guys pealing off from their female companions as they approached, only to disappear behind the long row of toilets.
I walked back, and there were large numbers of men peeing on the BACKS of the port-o-potties! This is fine. As the saying goes, when you are a man, the world is your toilet! So, I walked over and began to empty my bladder. I was about halfway done, and a big spotlight suddenly came on and began playing across the long rows of guys who had their backs to the spotlight with their hands in front of them, intently doing their business!
Apparently, someone complained, and the cops, who had a car on the other side of a channel of water and could not approach to shoo away us offending men, did the only thing they could and tried to embarrass us by shining a light on us!
Of course, we knew full well there was nothing the cops could do, since there was a twenty or thirty yard wide channel of water separating the fuzz from us.
Well.
There if there is one thing that a man with a measurable blood alcohol content and full bladder is fairly immune from, that is embarrassment! I don't think, in that long row of guys peeing on the backs of the port-o-potties, there there was anything more than a derisive chuckle to interrupt the process, not even a look back over the shoulder!
Not to mention their hypocrisy is in the stratosphere. They claim they are trying to protect lives with the vaccines, the masks and social distancing, yet they have no issue with defunding the cops and getting rid of bail. Oh yes, that CERTAINLY improves the health of people. Every day I read about someone murdered by some punk out on the street with no bail.
So you need an ID to watch a ball drop, but don’t need one to vote?
I’m glad I’m 78 years old.
Some animal noises allowed, though, thru the mask. Limited to baaaa and moooo.
I worked in Manhattan for decades. It was actually very enjoyable. But there was an article that made the rounds when I was there, titled "The Top 10 New York Things New Yorkers Never Do."
Going to Times Square for NYE was #1.
Now if some eastern time zone city like Knoxville, Tennessee or Beckley, West Virginia would erect a giant cow who'd lift her tail and drop a plop at midnight with good country music to usher in the new year, I'd make it a point to stay awake and watch.
I may or may not have been at the little event at the Capitol January 6. They may or may not have been a single large pine tree on the grounds.
A friend may or may not have watered the tree of liberty
I don’t believe in an ID card. A card can be easily lost or misplaced
A far better solution is to imbed a chip in the back of the kid’s neck
Hard to not know its midnight here as fireworks are legal....unfortunately
Will these people be quarantined in Times Square when they break out like the people on the fully vaxed cruise ships? Should people bring their own tents and supplies for the 10 day quarantine? Will they become street people after trained to live in the street for 10 days> Curious minds want to know.
My regular group of New Year’s Eve friends typically watch the ball drop in New York City, however I noticed that ABC are having their New Year’s Eve party in Miami!?!?
Even woke libtard network-types realize that if they truly want to have a fun and free night on television that it’s best to do so from Florida, NOT New York.
I will NEVER visit NY again - EVER! Libtard cesspool.
Better to keep an eye on the madness online.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=duffy+square+live+cam+
My wife and I watched several Christmas concerts on PBS. We started watching one in which everyone, orchestra, choir soloists, conductor, et al were masked. We both decided to skip it at that point and deleted it from our DVR. I think it was Trinity College. Looked ridiculous.
Well, China has its social credit score to decide who is fit to participate in the State’s largesse, so why wouldn’t the commies here in the US do the same.
Times Square has become a stockyard.
We just queue up Guy Lombardo.
That never gets old. :-)
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